A guy with a 65% winning percentage and top 10 statistically in multiple categories in the history of the league at his position is not "failing." Every day on here we talk about what a crappy job Jerry does constructing this roster. And then we turn around and blame the QB for the team's failings? That makes no sense to me. The fact of the matter is this team has not had a Super Bowl worthy defense since 2007. Yes the Quinn defenses generated a lot of turnovers but if and only if the offense could get a lead and let them pin their ears back. They were always powerless to stop any decent offense that was able to stay committed to the run. The success of the 2016-2019 defenses was also largely predicated on the offense controlling the clock, running the ball and letting them play from ahead and be on the field 25 minutes or less. When the other team was able to possess the ball (again by running it) those defenses generally came up short too.
The 2016 team was easily the best roster the Cowboys have had since Dak arrived. Unfortunately HE was rookie and not near ready to lead that team to the Super Bowl. None of the teams since then have been near as good as that one even while Dak himself has gotten better and better. He has not gotten good enough to overcome the deficiencies around him. You believe some other QB would? That's fair.. I don't. I watch other QBs around the league every Sunday.. Some with better supporting casts and some with lesser casts. I have yet to see one win in spite of a 30th or worse ranked defense. For all the praise we hear of Mahomes.. the Chiefs had the #2 defense in 2023 and the #4 defense in 2024. And they have the #4 defense in 2025. In fact during their run these last 7 years their defense has been #7, #8, #10, #16, #2, #4, #4. In that same span the Cowboys defense has been #6, #11, #28, #7, #5, #5, #31, #31. Which defense would you say gives you the best chance to get to the promised land? Maybe Mahomes is good enough to overcome a bottom feeder defense.. but we probably will never find out. Because Reid and Spagnuolo will probably never let it happen.
We saw what happened to Joe Burrow last year a 30 something ranked defense. I suspect if we look at any QB we consider to be good and pair him with some of the pathetic defenses we paired with Dak and our offense and the results would look very similar. All of this is a long winded way of saying that until we change how this team is put together.. it aint gonna matter who the QB is.. Some other QB coming in and masking all the deficiencies on the defensive side of the ball is a pipe dream. When I did the research a few years back I found that the worst rated defense ever to win the Super Bowl was the 2011 Giants. They finished the season in the mid 20's I think it was 25th. However they had a rash of injuries that led to them being rated waaaay lower than their ability and getting their guys back just in time for the playoffs really told the tale for them. They gave up like 10 points less per game in the playoffs than they had in the regular season. I mean that is just stoopid. Playing better teams and holding them to fewer points. Nuff said.
